A successful woman on the top of her game is diagnosed with cancer. Life expectancy is low. What do you do when you know you are going to die? For Vivian (Vilma Santos), the lead in the Filipino movie Everything About Her that is streaming on Netflix, it meant facing her disease head-on while continuing to kill it (pun intended) in the real estate industry. She hires a nurse named Jaica (Angel Locsin), who not only helps her with her illness but also teaches her a thing or two about living a better, more fulfilled life.
The movie is full of scenes that show off the acting prowess of both Vilma Santos and Angel Locsin. I thought that they played off each other very well in this movie not just in the comedic scenes but in the dramatic moments as well. It takes real talent to make a viewer (namely, me) laugh in one scene and then cry during another. Their exchanges all come off naturally and make you relate to their characters as real people.
I’ve always been a Vilma Santos fan so I may be biased here but I loved her in this movie. This lady is so tiny in person but the way she played her role as Vivian made her seem like a larger than life character with so much power and influence, like someone you would not want to cross. Angel Locsin as Jaica was both street-smart and funny. The chill character who has been through a lot but keeps going. I think has played similar roles in her other films. Her role in Four Sisters and a Wedding reminds me a bit of Jaica. It’s too bad that she hasn’t done a movie in a while, I think she is so versatile as an actress (who can do comedy, drama, action, etc.) and deserves to do more films that can show off that versatility.
While I do appreciate having the eye candy with Xian Lim being in this movie, I felt that his role as Vivian’s estranged son was not given enough exposure/time for viewers to understand how complicated his relationship was with his mother and why it was hard for him to make the effort to patch things up with her when he first came back. Still, I felt that he did justice to this role and he held his own alongside two talented actresses in this movie.
There were several moving scenes in this movie that I loved, mostly they were scenes that dealt with parent-child relationships and how complicated they could be. There were a few particular scenes in the movie that I could count as my favorites: The scene where Vivian discovered that her son knew that she was sick, the scene where Vivian and Jaica talked about the sacrifices parents do for their children that may not always be appreciated and the scene where Vivian hosts a dinner for everyone and pretty much uses that for saying her goodbyes.
I loved how this movie tackled not just the reality of a person’s mortality but also took on the topic of the relationship between parents and their grown children. I also liked that it posed the question of a good work-life balance and about doing something fulfilling with our careers and ultimately our lives, not just something that would make money. The fact that this movie was able to do that while making the audience laugh and cry (and swoon at Xian Lim, who is oh so handsome in this film) makes this a good one for me.
This was a movie I watched on a whim. Even if I am a fan of Vilma Santos, I did not expect to like this movie as much as I did. I’m happy that it’s in an international streaming service so more people not just in the Philippines but in other countries could watch it. I think that the topic is very universal and it’s something a lot of people will be able to relate to. It doesn’t hurt that they have a really good cast for this one too. I hope people catch it while it’s still on Netflix!
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